Rashek is a Terrisman from Scadrial. Known as the Lord Ruler, the Sliver of Infinity and the Father, he has access to the full range of abilities of both a Feruchemist and an Allomancer, and has Hemalurgic spikes in his body. As a result, he is an extremely powerful Compounder, and he was able to unify the world into an empire that lasted for one thousand years.

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Rashek is incredibly tall and handsome. He has pale skin and has black hair. He wears black and white clothing that resembles an exaggerated nobleman's suit, with a coat that runs down to his feet and trails behind him and a black vest accented with white markings. He also wears several rings, both as show of his strength and as Feruchemical storage.[4]

He is charismatic.

He enjoys playing and listening to music and keeps a small wooden flute among his Terris relics.[5][6]

Prior to his Ascension, he disliked the people of Khlennium, and was hostile and angry towards them, despite never having been to the state, because of their oppression of the Terris people.[7][8] Though he hated them, he also envied several aspects of their culture, later incorporating them into the culture of the Final Empire.[9][10]

Rashek was part of a growing number of young Terris who had more violent attitudes than was seen as typical of their people. They believed that their Feruchemy should have been put to greater use than it was as a tool for simple labour. Alendi believed Rashek and his fellows to be dangerous, given the opportunity.[1]

Rashek believed that Alendi was not the true Hero of Ages, and was resentful of him.[11] He thought that an outsider -- someone not pure Terris, as well as an oppressor of Terris -- could not be the Hero, and that Alendi had tricked the Terris philosophers.[12][8] He led Alendi to the Well of Ascension and killed him, under instructions from his uncle, Kwaan. He was ignored by Ruin up until the moment he murdered Alendi.[13] He then took and used the power of Preservation, ascending to become the Lord Ruler.

As Rashek was using the power of the Well, he changed many aspects of life on Scadrial, in order to save the world from the Deepness. Many of his changes, however, created even more problems that needed to addressed. He moved the planet closer to its sun in an attempt to burn the mists away. The new orbit was too close to the sun, and he created active volcanoes to produce large amounts of ash and smoke to cool down the world.[14] The climate of ceaseless ashfalls required some mechanism to break down the ash, that the world did not suffocate on it, so Rashek altered the plantlife to be able to survive the ash and created microbes to break it down. However, that was still not enough to save humanity. Rashek altered the physiology of humans on Scadrial to be able to survive the ashfall.[15][16]

Further alterations to the world and humanity were made to secure his rule over the world. The Terris mountains were flattened, and new mountains were raised in the north in order to hide the location of the Well of Ascension.[17] While he had adapted humanity to the ash, he made other changes, creating the nobility and the skaa of the Final Empire with slight alterations to their physiology. The nobility he made taller, stronger and more intelligent, but less fertile. The skaa he made more fertile, shorter and hardier.[18]

He offered his friends a choice to make on behalf of all living Feruchemists, to transform them into mistwraiths. His friends he further transformed into kandra to allow them to retain their minds and their memories. In this process, he failed to account for Feruchemy genes still dormant in the Terris population, an oversight which allowed more Feruchemists to be born into following generations.[19]

Though he had already created the kandra in his Terris friends, he gained much knowledge of the three Metallic Arts in the brief moments he held the power of the Well. With his knowledge of Hemalurgy, he was able to create koloss and Inquisitors. Despite all the knowledge gained from his holding the power of the Well, in a thousand years he was unable to create more than the three Hemalurgic constructs which he had already created.[20][21]

Finally, he rebuilt himself to be a Mistborn, rather than ingesting one of the beads of Lerasium at the Well of Ascension.[22]

He formed the Final Empire, partly as a means of revenge against the people he viewed as encroaching on Terris land[23], and conquered the whole of the world. He was obsessed with order, and he subjugated all but ten foreign kings, who he made Mistborn and allowed them to rule over the masses.[24] He made use of both Allomantic and Feruchemical powers in order to Compound to keep himself alive. The Lord Ruler was also called Sliver of Infinity by the people of the Final Empire.[25][26][27]

The Lord Ruler said his empire lasted a thousand years. More specifically, it had lasted 1024 years. [28]

He has had several children, who had some relation to his attempt to end the Final Empire. His children mixed among the population, and post-Catacendre, he still has living descendants.[29][30][31][32]

Vin kills him using the power of the mists, after his own powerful steel push ripped her Hemalurgic earring free; allowing her to access Preservation's power and use her new found strength to remove his atium bracers. His death leads to the Collapse, and the end of the skaa rebellion.

“He suffered much beneath Ruin's hand, but he was a good man, who ultimately had honorable intentions.”

Rashek has the powers of a full Mistborn and a full Feruchemist. In addition to this, his arm bracers are Hemalurgic spikes, filled with an unknown attribute.[34][35] With a combination of all three Metallic Arts, he was able to Compound all sixteen metals and pull off his most impressive abilities. By Compounding Feruchemical gold and Feruchemical Atium, he effectively made himself immortal. However, as he aged, he required more and more stored youth to keep himself alive, and he would have eventually had to resort to other means to retain his immortality.

“ My lord, look outside your window! Do we not have better things to discuss? The entire city is in rebellion! Skaa torches light up the night, and they dare go out into the mists. They blaspheme in riots, attacking the keeps of the nobility!
”

“God cannot be killed. God cannot be overthrown. Your rebellion—you think I haven't seen its like before? You think I haven't destroyed entire armies on my own? What will it take before you people stop questioning? How many centuries must I prove myself before you idiot skaa see the truth? How many of you must I kill!
”